May, 2024
Press Play
Bart: All right, you guys closing some arches? Anybody closing arches right now? Seemed to have picked up big time. Um, you know, in May for a lot of, for a lot of, uh, my treatment coordinators. I don’t know if anybody saw the same thing. Really kind of picked up. Hello, hello. Well, as you guys log on, just kind of bear with me. Hey.
Krisha: Hey. I think we did twenty in May.
Bart: You did?
Krisha: Yeah.
Bart: Awesome, awesome. Yeah, man, twenty, is that the first time you’ve guys have broken twenty?
Krisha: Um, maybe or close to it. I’m not sure. Not sure but it was a good month for sure.
Bart: Yeah. I mean, you know what-what I’m seeing, you know, I think just kind of, uh, across the country right now, a lot of, a lot of practices are down right now compared to where-where they were last year, and what’s happening is a lot of those little competitors that you guys have been dealing with for the last 3, 4 years that were kind of new to the market, and they were new in the dental implant scene, they started advertising just out of the blue. A lot of those guys have gotten squeezed and they’re kind of pulling back. They’re actually like out of the market, um, in certain instances, so a lot of the smaller players that weren’t in it before the big kind of surge, um, a lot of them just get nervous and then they just kind of pull back. If they have 1 or 2 bad months they kind of pull back.
What ends up happening is the demand is still growing for implants, but when you have a pullback with the market, you’re… the demand’s still there but your competition actually starts to shrink, right? So it’s not as diluted, uh, ’cause that, that’s what you get when you’re in a market and it’s like, hey, we’ve got 3 main competitors, and then a year later you have fifteen main competitors. It’s not that the demand is less, it’s just that it’s-it’s more diluted, right? Everyone is kind of splitting up the leads, um, and it’s just more competitive, so I think what you’re seeing right now is just kind of, uh, in a lot of markets, you’re seeing a reduction in, uh, in competition as-as people, you know, kind of experience the pullback, which is, you know, that’s-that’s a good thing. It’s a good thing for us.
You know, that’s when you guys can take market share, so when things get a little tougher you just need to be willing to do the things that the other practices won’t do for the patients. You know what I mean? Your-your goal is to do as many of these cases as you can, do things that everybody else won’t do and-and provide the best service and be super aggressive in picking up market share. Uh, just-just dominate. When-when… typically when the… those other practices get scared, they kind of pull back and try to conserve everything, right? And in a market pullback, you want to be super aggressive. That’s when you take all the market share. That’s when you have the-the fewest number of competitors and the fewest dollars going into the market. Makes sense guys?
Cool, so I’m gonna go through… um, I wanted to go through something that’s been coming up on some of the, uh, on some of the calls and something that’s been coming up on some of the videos, and I wanted to talk about how we’re handling patients that are saying let me think about it, and how we structure our follow up for those patients. Okay? Does anyone have a system right now that you guys are using for somebody that says let me think about it, in terms of how you follow up or how you end the consultation with them? Anybody have a standardized way that you’re doing it? Nobody has a standardized way. The red button…
Isabella: We just set a, we-we set a recall in our office and we generally will just follow up with the patients, or ask them when they want us to follow up with them.
Bart: Okay, and when you follow up, what do you say?
Isabella: Just following up, how did things go? What are you waiting for? You know, just whatever they told me the last time that we saw them.
Bart: How’s that work for you?
Isabella: Sometimes it works, sometimes people will tell me that something else is going on and that they need another follow up call.
Bart: Okay, well, hey, if they respond at all, it’s decent. You know what I mean? A lot of times with the follow up the problem is you-you don’t even get a response. You’re like chasing them. It’s like, well, how long do we chase this person? How long should we follow up, you know, is a question that I get asked, so I wanna address the-the follow up process and also just the let me think about it thing, right? How often do you guys hear a patient say let me think about it over the course of a month, right? If you do a hundred consultations out of the a hundred, how many of you think are gonna say let me think about it on the first consultation? What do you think you guys think 20% of ’em? 30% more or less. What do you think? Is it the number…
Isabella: More.
Bart: More. Yeah, it’s probably the number 1 objection, right?
Isabella: Yeah.
Bart: Anyone not have a problem handling that objection? The let me think about it. Objection. Anyone got that one down? Pat?
Jeema: We need help with this part.
Bart: Okay. All right. I think, I think this is probably the number 1 objection that you’re getting, that you’re having a little bit more of a hard time with, um, because they’re not giving you a direct objection. Okay? But let’s talk first about kind of where it comes from. All right? And this is gonna be, uh, for the next, you know, the next fifty minutes. This is gonna be good for you guys to take a-a couple of notes because I’m gonna give you some things that you can use immediately here, okay? Um, and I want you to be aware because before we talk about how do we handle let me think about it, we should understand where that comes from and what we can do to proactively reduce the number of let me think about it that we actually get, okay? And then I’ll show you how to handle it and then how to follow up.
We got a lot to do in this call. Um, make sure that you guys are ready to, uh, to participate as well because I’ll-I’ll call on a, uh, call on a few people, so people say let me think about it typically they’re saying lemme think about it ’cause they’re unsure about it in one way, shape, or form. Okay? But the 2 things that you have to look at is, did we create urgency and do we have any, uh, any type of an emotional buy-in, right? So is there urgency? Meaning did the patient articulate their pain points, and basically were they, were they forthcoming in terms of, uh, the deterioration of the quality of life that they’re living, right? So that’s kind of where you get the pain from.
We have to make sure that-that that’s happening, number 1. Number 2, did we create any excitement or any type of visualization around getting them excited about the result that we’re trying to achieve? I think this is kind of a big missing piece here, right? What do you guys do to create visualization to where you have a person sitting in front of, sitting in front of you that’s like, “God, I can’t wait to have this done.” Somebody share what you guys do to create that excitement with them. What do you do? Come on. What do you do?
Leslie: You celebrate candidacy, right? Once they’re done.
Bart: Well, you’re gonna celebrate candidacy but how do you get ’em excited about it though? Like excited about the result? You know what I mean?
Jeema: What we do is…
Bart: Go ahead.
Jeema: Okay. I was gonna say, we try to tell the patients like, “Yeah, you know, we had a similar case like yours and the results were blah, blah, blah, and they keep coming back saying, now I can do da, da da da, da.” And just trying to kinda make a connector of like, “Man, you remind me of someone and then this is how their results were.” And hopefully, you know, basically they’re trying to make a connection of my results can maybe be like their results or, you know, your case looks very similar to several that we’ve just recently even done, and you know, the feedback that we’ve been getting is this, and you, their spouse is telling us such and such, like trying to be all, you know, you can be in the… this person’s shoes too and have that transformation yourself kind of…
Bart: Got it, so and I like… I even, I like the way that you’re saying that too. Um, and-and with the tone that you’re using and the level of excitement that you’re using is really good, but what are they actually visualizing when they’re… when you’re telling this story. I need them to visualize what they’re gonna look like, right? When it’s all said and done. I need, I need to put the image in their head somehow, so I’ve got some clients actually when they’re telling the story about that 1 person, it helps. It’s like you 10X the results if you have the before and after of the person that you’re talking about, the story that you’re telling. That you can show them while you’re telling the story, it’ll like 10X the effectiveness of it, right? Because what we’re trying to do is create an image in their head, and the easiest way to do that is actually give them an image, right?
If we don’t give ’em an image, we have to articulate it in a manner that allows them to create the image from our words. We have to be really descriptive. It just takes longer. You can do it but it takes longer, so using the actual before and after, um, of the person that you’re referring to, and maybe having 3 or 4 or 5 of those to go to, that’s gonna help tremendously because they’re gonna look at that person and go, “Holy crap, that doesn’t even look like the same person. Oh my God.” Right? And guys if you don’t have any of these types of assets, when you bring somebody in, make sure that you’re… that you guys are not wasting opportunities and look at and go, “Hey, we need to grab the camera, I’m gonna take a before picture here.”
You know what I mean? And after it’s all said and done and they get their final and they’re all good to go, and you bring ’em in, bring ’em in and make sure that they look good and take an after picture, you know, so that you can have a before and after with a ton of contrast, right? So that’s-that’s going to enhance the-the effectiveness of it tremendously, is showing ’em a before and after. Another way to help with the visualization ’cause you wanna get ’em excited. Like you wanna create the emotion so that it’s-it’s just as much of an impulse buy as anything else. Um, so another thing that really helps is using some type of a software like a digital smile design or preview, where they can come in and when they fill out their new patient paperwork, you guys can take a photo and then give it to whoever’s at the front, um, or an assistant and let them go through and just make a quick before and after of that photo, right?
To where you’re almost like superimposing the new smile in the picture, and that way when you guys are in your second ten before the doctor leaves, you can show ’em, hand ’em the iPad and they can scroll back and forth to see like what their photo is now, and what they’re gonna look like with, uh, with the new smile but I think it’s a really big component that a lot of times we’re missing. Is like we don’t, we’re not really… we don’t have somebody that’s super excited about the results sitting in front of us. They’re kind of there because we’re the last stop, right? They’re kind of there because they can’t take any more pain.
You know, they’re about as bad as you can get in terms of their dental health. They waited that long to go see you, so they’re not proactively doing this is my point, so a lot of ’em are just like, “Man, anything to get me out of pain or anything to get… you know, to regain my ability to eat.” But, you know, the functional aspect, it just doesn’t have the same effect as the visual aspect of how they look, ’cause they don’t even look like the same person anymore, right? I mean, what-what happens to like the level of attractiveness for a person that has really bad teeth and then someone that has, that has all on 4[?]? It’s like,
Jeema: It’s a huge difference.
Bart: Oh my god. It is night and day, and that’s what people will say when you’re telling the story and you show ’em the before and after. It’s-it’s a really good before and after it works wonders ’cause they start thinking immediately what? When they look at that before and after they start going, “Oh man, I’m gonna look good.” Right? Or maybe they’re thinking, “Man, that person looks a lot better and I’m better looking than they are to start with, so what am I gonna look like?” You know, either way they’re going to draw conclusions and make comparisons and that type of visual, is almost… it’s almost impossible to not generate some type of an emotion, an emotional response with it.
Jeema: Bart, what about if the patient 10 out of 10 is functionality and it’s not aesthetics. I had a younger gentleman, he was about 40 years old. I came in yesterday for a consult and he is like, “I-I just”… he… I mean functionality actually that-that wasn’t him. I’m sorry, there’s a different patient I had. He really just wants functionality, so me painting the picture, how effective do you feel like that is? Or is there a different strategy I need to use when someone’s 10 outta 10, and urgency is, I want it to be fully functional. I don’t care how it looks. That’s just an added bonus. I mean, not that they don’t care but you know what I mean. That’s not their 10 outta 10.
Bart: Yeah, a100%. Well, I think in that in that scenario, right? You’ve relayed the information to the doctor, doctors making the treatment plan and they’re gonna frame it 95%, right? In terms of what it’s gonna take to get you back to, you know, a 9 outta 10 in terms of function or a 10 outta 10 in terms of function. Um, and at the end of it you can say, “Listen, um, you know, we’re choosing zirconia because of the hardness. We’re doing the X amount of implants for the stability, and this is kind of everything that we need to make sure we have maximum function and that it doesn’t break down quickly, so function and longevity have to go hand in hand, so let me give you an idea. After we’re done with the surgery and we’re done with the treatment, let me give you an idea of kind of what this looks like, what this function is actually going to look like.” And then I would just show ’em the before and after.
You know, because I don’t care what they say, no matter what they say. Like they’re just thinking, yeah, I don’t mind the way I look right now. I don’t mind my teeth. I’m not insecure about my teeth or whatever, and sometimes it’s a macho thing especially with guys, like they don’t want to admit it but I don’t care who you are. Once they see, you just have to show them the before and after, so you can just say, “Hey, just so that you have an idea in terms of what this is gonna look like, right? Building a smile specifically for functional, lemme give you an idea of what it’s gonna look like. This person had the same exact goals that you’re telling me, same objectives and we’re gonna be using very the-the same exact type of material, and it’s a very similar surgery. Let me give you an idea so that you are clear in terms of what it’s going to look like afterwards.”
Then show them the before and after because it’s a no lose situation for you, right? You’re-you’re not gonna go backwards by doing it and when they look at it they’re still going to like that it looks really good, that they’re gonna look more attractive, that they’re gonna look younger. Um, you’re still gonna plant that seed and I don’t know, is… there’s very few times that I can remember even hearing from one of the treatment coordinators of the doctors, where in which the patient for the first time looks at themself, right? With the temporary and has 0 emotional response, like doesn’t smile and just has no emotional response. No matter how macho they were, how they said they don’t care and it’s all about function. The first time they look in the mirror, they’re gonna smile.
Like I don’t really care what they say that’s gonna happen. I-I don’t even rem… I can’t think if I’ve ever heard of somebody just looked at go, “Oh yeah, cool, thanks.” Like they’re gonna smile about… they’re gonna have some type of a visual, uh, emotional reaction to that, so remember guys you-you… like we’re gonna spend some time, we’re gonna get clear on the pain points. We’re gonna make sure that they know the problem’s not going to get better on its own, and make sure that they have some urgency and they know that something needs to get fixed but as soon as we have that, right, as soon as that’s been done, you wanna completely switch the tone and go into visualization and excitement.
That’s when you’re kind of painting the vision. What are we looking for for function? What are we looking for for aesthetics? And then your job is to make sure that they have a really clear picture in their head of what they’re going to look like, versus what they look like right now and that’s if-if you can just do that, the more you can do it, the-the better off you’re going to be, because that’s what gets ’em to really want the treatment and want it now, is that kind of emotion. Does that make sense Okay, and then the last thing to prevent the let me think about is to make sure that they know without question that they’re getting a good deal, and they’re making a smart financial decision, that they’re not getting ripped off.
Okay? So number 1, urgency, right? And they’ve articulated their pain points. Number 2, emotion and visualization of the outcome, and number 3, they’re making a smart decision and they’re getting a good deal. Meaning they’re buying below market value. They’re not getting ripped off. Those are the 3 biggest contributing factors to someone saying let me think about it. One of those things is missing. Make sense?
Ashley: Yeah.
Bart: Anybody-anybody unclear how to show them that they’re, that they’re getting a good deal, that they’re buying below market value? Is anyone struggling with that? You guys on the videos you kind of seem like you’re a little bit uncomfortable with that part, some of you. Anybody struggle with that at all? Like showing ’em they’re getting a good deal? You guys need me to send you all Red Bull or what? You gotta be talk… I-I-I got all these faces in front of me, I’m talking to myself. Anybody struggle with it in the third 10 when you guys are showing them you’re going through the bundle? Do you think it’s working?
Jeema: We struggle because I mean, we are showing them the bundle deal, but sometimes they’re like, “Oh man, I thought it was only $15,000 an arch, and they start going like that, so our office, I mean, my team and I are struggling with this.
Bart: Well man, even if they say that, that kind of actually it’ll help a little bit if they say that, you know, because like I mean, there’s arches out there for $15,000, there’s arches out there for a lot less, you know. I mean, and that’s why, that’s why it can be so confusing but we don’t do an arch to do an arch. You know, we we’re like… we we’re try… we have to, we have to create a result and that’s that, that’s the 10 outta 10 in terms of function, aesthetics, longevity, give you something that’s not gonna be a problem, something that’s not gonna break. We can do an arch for 10,000 bucks, right? But it’s-it’s a completely different type of treatment designed to yield a completely different type of result, and some people wanna pay 10,000 bucks for an arch and they wanna redo it every 3 or 4 years and they can do it.
From what I’m understanding with you it’s not about that. It’s about do do this one time and do it right, you know, unless I get that wrong, so you wanna make sure that they recognize, hey, like you can do an arch and they go, “Oh, you know, I got somebody else that can do an arch for 14,000.” You say, “I know people that do an arch for $8,000. It’s not about what they can charge for the arch, it’s about what results is that “arch” going to give you and-and are those results, um, acceptable?” Because I know some people where the results are suc… uh, are acceptable, you know, and I’ve-I’ve had some patients that came in and said, “Hey, even if it doesn’t last I’m not really concerned with it. My main goal is to get this for as cheap and fast as possible.”
You know what I do? I help ’em do that, but certainly that wouldn’t be, you know, going somewhere for 15 or 16 thou… $17,000. A lot of people… you know, I’ve seen people go down and, you know, they’ll make an appointment and go to Mexico and they’ll get it done for 6,000 bucks. Now it probably won’t last for twenty four months but they don’t care, and if that’s the result they’re looking for then I can help ’em get the result. You know, we don’t do it here but I can send ’em somewhere for it, so it’s not about like, “Hey, I thought the arch was gonna be like this.” It’s like, no. What type of result are we trying to create? And the arch right? Has to be engineered and surgically planned to-to-to provide those types of results, and you can have one that’s built to last 6 months.
You can have one that’s built to last twenty four, thirty six, and you can have one that’s built to last a lifetime, some people are just more concerned with the money they’re paying right now than the money they’re gonna pay tomorrow, and other people are like, “Hey, give me as few visits as possible and something’s gonna last as long as possible.” So it’s not about the price point, it’s about the result. That’s why we’re, you know, that’s why we’re talking about this. Um, so the more they say, right, in terms of a direct response the better but what they have to understand is not all arches are created equal, and that bundle that you’re showing them, your goal is to make this as affordable as humanly possible without cutting any corners, because you can cut corners, you can change materials, you can change techniques and you can charge less.
We can do that. The problem with doing that is that now the results are going to change, right? And you’ve expressed that these are the types of results that you want, so our goal is how do I give you this result? Include everything that we need for a great long-term result and give you the best deal possible so that you know you’re making a good decision, and that you’re getting a good deal and you’re buying below what it’s worth, right? So here’s how we do that. We’re still gonna include everything, but we’re gonna give you an additional consideration because of the volume that we do, or blah, blah, blah, whatever the… whatever it is that you say, it needs to be believable, but they have to understand that if you wanted to take things out, you could get ’em to a lower price, right? And if they’re hooked on the price thing, I ask ’em, I say, “Listen, would you say is price the number 1 most important thing to you in regards to the treatment at this point in time?”
That’s the question that you ask. If they say yes, say, “Well listen. If it’s the most important thing, and the goal is just ’cause something as cheap as possible, it doesn’t matter how long it lasts, the aesthetics aren’t that important. The function’s not that important. Just something better than what you have as quickly as possible. Um, you know, then I can help you find a place that’s gonna be as cheap as possible. If that’s what you want to do.” That’s called the takeaway. You just take it away. Give ’em exactly what they want. What it does is it-it gives them reason to pause and go, “Hold on moment. Really? Do I want that?” It’s like, “Well, if the results aren’t that big of a deal, right? Then you can do it. There’s places you can go out of the country. There’s other clinics that you can go to that are really cheap. It’s just, it’s cheap materials not built to last. You know, it’s just not gonna last that long, so you’re gonna be redoing it but if that’s okay, then that… there are people that do that, and you can certainly do that. I’ll help you do it if that’s what we’re trying to, trying to accomplish.”
You know what I mean? Because I don’t argue with ’em or go back and forth. It’s just you just have to make ’em think and have to see that, okay, I need all of these things in order to get the results and if I get this result over the long term, it’s gonna be cheaper, right? So the lifetime value of this treatment plan, even though this treatment co… plan costs more, right now, the lifetime cost is lower than this other one that’s cheaper right now, ’cause the lifetime cost is gonna be higher because it’s gonna… you’re gonna need more visits. Uh, you’re gonna be redoing work and you’re constantly kind of putting money into it, so what’s more important, the upfront cost or the lifetime cost? You wanna low lifetime cost, something that lasts and a higher upfront cost or a lower upfront cost, higher lifetime costs, more visits, something that doesn’t last. It’s up to you.
I can help you get either one, and once you gain agreement that hey, they want the, they want the one that’s gonna be a lower lifetime cost, then you guys have to really work at showing them that they’re getting a-a big discount. You know, you’re getting a big discount, you’re making a smart decision here, and financially this is a no-brainer, and by the way if we were to split this up and we can only do 1 arch at a time, there’s no way that I would be able to-to-to do this at this price. The fact that we’re going to be doing sedation and the fact that we’re doing both arches in 1 visit, um, it just saves so much money that I can pass the savings on to you but if you split this out and break this up, then you know, there, there’s no way, there’s no way to give this kind of a discount.
Not this, not this kind of a discount, so I always want to incentivize them to do the maximum amount of work and the minimum of amount of visits, because it’s so much more profitable for the practice. Does that make sense ladies? You guys tracking with me?
Jeema: Yeah.
Bart: Okay. Half of you look like you are, and the other half, look like I’m confusing you, dammit, doing more harm than good for some of you but we’re gonna keep going. Um, okay, so 3 biggest con… 3 biggest contributing factors to them saying let me think about it. What is it? Somebody come off mute and tell me 3 things.
Malone: Lack of urgency.
Jeema: Trust.
Bart: Okay. Three things you can do to mitigate that object, that objective. What’s the first thing that you can that you have to make sure of?
Leslie: Create urgency, emotion, and give them the deal. A good deal.
Bart: Okay. Okay, so write this down, so they’ve articulated their pain points, that’s where the urgency comes from, right? they’ve articulated their pain points and their quality of life, right? And it sucks. Number 2, right? Visualizing how they’re going to look and feel with the result, okay, and being able to actually give them an image to put in their head is gonna make it way easier for you guys to do that but that excitement has to be there, and number 3, is they’re making a smart purchase and they’re getting a good deal. The… if you’re doing all 3 of those, you’re gonna get let me think about it significantly less. You’re never going to eliminate it, but you’re gonna get it way less if you’re doing those 3 things. Cool. Okay, so let’s say we’re doing those 3 things, we get a let me think about it. Who knows how to handle let me think about it.
What do you guys say? What do you say? Robin, how do you tackle that? How do you tackle let me think about it.
Robin: Um, personally I don’t do treatment plans, but I would say, um, I would ask what is it exactly you need to think about?
Bart: Okay.
Robin: You know, so you can kind of get what direction they’re going. Like are they thinking about do they really wanna do? I mean, obviously they wanna do it or they wouldn’t come, or do they-they thinking about the financials, you know? So if you can like really pinpoint what it is that they need to think about.
Bart: Exactly. Cynthia, what do you say? I say let me… patient says let me think about it. How are you addressing that?
Cynthia: Um, so what exactly is it that-that you’re not comfortable with? Is it the-the treatment itself? Is it the doc? Is it the, um, is it the cost? How can I help you figure out where we need to go from here?
Bart: Got it. Okay, so and guys here’s the issue with let me think about it. They just said let me think about it, they didn’t say I’m uncomfortable with anything, right? And the reason why they said let me think about it, is ’cause they don’t want to talk about it with you, right? So tha-that’s where the problem comes in with asking ’em like, “Well, what is there to think about?” And they’re thinking like, “Well, I don’t really want to tell you. That’s why I’m gonna go think about it.” You know what I mean? So it puts you in a position where it’s difficult to just be, “Well, okay, but what is there to think about?” And they’re like, “I don’t want to tell you what there is to think about. Just let me think. Like with myself inside my own head without you here.” You know what I mean?
You have to ask a question. You wanna ask that question without asking that question. Okay? So the easiest thing to do is isolate one thing. Okay? So if they’re thinking about it, it means they, they’re unsure about something, so it’s either that they’re unsure about the treatment plan, right? Like, “Hey, is this treatment plan really what I want or really what I need?” They’re unsure about it so they need to think about it. Number 2 would be the price they’re unsure. Is this a good price? Is it high? Is it low? Is it in the middle? Where’s this price? Is it good? I don’t know. I’m not sure. Right? Let me think about it. Number 3 could be a lot of times the doctor, you know what I mean? Do they click with the doctor, right? Is this the doc… do I trust this doctor, do I trust you?
Do I trust the team? Do I trust this company? Do I trust the business? Do I trust everything that I’m seeing? I’m not totally sure I don’t have that grade of a feeling let me think about it. Those are like the 3 kind of biggest reasons why someone’s gonna say let me think about it. Okay? It’s either the treatment, the price, or it’s the trust factor with the doctor with you. You guys with me? Okay. Out of those 3, which one do you think would be the most difficult for you to overcome in the third 10? Out of those 3? Would it be I’m unsure about the treatment or would it be I’m unsure about the price, or I’m unsure about you or the doctor? Which one would be the most difficult?
Jeema: You or the doctor, the trust factor.
Bart: I think the most difficult and the most time consuming by far would be if they’re not sure that it’s the right treatment for them, ’cause if they’re not even ensure that that treatment is going to get them the results that they want, then we kind of miss the whole thing ’cause it’s impossible to sell. It’s not impossible. You can overcome money and you can overcome trust, but you can’t overcome if somebody doesn’t believe that that treatment makes any sense. It-it doesn’t matter because even if they trusted you and even if they love the price, if they don’t think the treatment makes sense, if we miss the mark on that, you can’t, you can’t close it like that. We can’t miss the mark. That means in their head that equation, that X plus Y equals Z. It does not prove out for them. They’re like, “No, I’m not, I’m not sure that I need this. I’m not sure that I’m a candidate. I’m not sure that-that this is necessary.” Right? Or “I’m not sure that I like it.”
Gretell: Hey Bart, I have a question for you. Unlike that what you’re saying right now where it would be the treatment, our situation here in Miami is a little different. It-it is about the money, not about the doctor. The doctor sells perfectly. Everything is to par. The situation is like we’ve run into… and even that I’ve researched on my own other practices that are selling the treatment at $18,000, and these are reputable doctors, on top of the fact that they’re giving exactly the same thing. Forget about the treatments out the door because they’re doing a membership, so it’s like the longevity, they keep on going and trickling in. On top of that they’re using yomi, so it’s at $18,000 in arch. It’s kind of really hard to compete with that.
It’s not about the doctor at this point, and I’d like your perspective on that and see how we can go around that.
Bart: Well, I mean the-the hardest part is even if that’s true, if they’re saying let me think about it, they’re not verbalizing it, right? So-so when we’re talking about a patient that’s just kind of like sitting through the consultation, they’re agreeing with everything. You guys think, hey, this is a done deal. You think this is really good, and then they give you a very polite let me think about it. You know, let me do this, let me do that. I’ll give you a call next week. Is that okay? Like those are the ones where you guys are kind of struggling with. They’re not saying it’s price even though it might be, so the first thing is to isolate what it is. Okay? So we want to take the biggest thing off the table first. The biggest thing off the table is the treatment. I have to make sure it’s not that, so instead of asking…
Gretell: Yeah. The-the treatment, the treatment for us is-is perfect. Everything. They love everything about it but it comes down to the nitty gritty. It’s the money. Hands down it’s…
Bart:. Yeah, but stay with, but stay with me. Right? The topic here is let me think about it. I’ll get to it. Don’t change a channel on me, right? So I’ll-I’ll get to it right now, so when they say let me think about it, you don’t know what it is. That’s-that’s why it’s the most difficult one. Somebody says it’s money it’s easy, but when they say let me think about it, it’s more difficult because it could be different things and you don’t know, and when you ask them directly they don’t want to tell you and the whole conversation gets awkward. That’s what happens, so what I say is, “Okay, I understand you need to-to-to think about it. Um, let me ask you a question though. When it… as it pertains to the treatment, right?”
“Like just forget about everything else, just the treatment itself based on where you are now and everything that you want as far as function, aesthetics. Like does the treatment plan that the doctor put together make sense? Like do-do you like the treatment? Like do you love the treatment? Does the treatment make sense to you? Forget about everything else. Just like that part of it. Like are we good there?” That’s what I’m saying and then I’m looking at their reaction now, how are they gonna answer that question? One of you guys give me a possible response that I might get when I ask…
Gretell: I’ll give you that re… I’ll-I’ll give you that response because I did have that scenario recently, and basically, you know, it was a matter of, “Look, I went to another place already. I wasn’t crazy about the doctor. I really like your doctor. Can you match it?” And I’m like…
Bart: Okay, boom, so-so-so first objective is complete, so what did I just do? Without asking them what do you need to think about? They just told me it’s money, right? Because they said no it’s not the treatment, no it’s not the doctor, here’s what it is, and that’s the whole point with let me think about it, is you can’t directly ask ’em what is there to think about? You can, it’s just not quite as effective as isolating the treatment and saying, you know, as-as far as where you are now and where you want to be. Like does the treatment plan make sense? Our goal with let me think about it is to find the objection. What you’re saying is I’m getting a direct objection, but that’s… it’s a different topic than we’re on right now, but the first thing with let me think about it, is figure out what they need to think about without asking them what are you thinking about? Everybody on the same page.
Gretell: The only way… I think, I think the only one that has to think about anything is us, because we have to try to see if we can, if we can match up to $18,000. You get what I’m saying? Like do we take the cut and for zirconia, it’s not even PMMA, no full zirconia, and you know, I can send you the website, uh, all everything that they’ve-they’ve come in, you know, fully prepared and knowing the process.
Bart: I got it, I got it. I’ll get to it. You’re… it’s-it’s a price objection, but the point is with any kind of a direct objection, uh, it’s infinitely easier than if someone is very quiet and they don’t give you that objection but they think it. You know what I mean? So I’ll-I’ll get to it but I don’t want to jump ahead because half of the people have price objections, but they’re not telling you, they’re just saying let me think about it, and we’re saying, “Okay, can I call you on next Wednesday?” And they leave and we never knew what the real objection was, so the first goal is to find out the objection. Once you know the objection, we can handle it. It’s the objections you don’t know about that are killing you, right? So guys, is everyone clear on the strategy for the question that I ask when I get let me think about it.
Okay, so I’m not asking them what is there to think about. I’m saying, “Look I get it. Okay, so you need to think about it. That’s no problem. Let me just ask you a question, right? As it pertains to the treatment itself. Like just like forget about everything else, just the treatment based on where you are now and what you want in terms of the results, your functioning aesthetics. Like does the treatment plan that the doctor put together, does that make sense to you? Like it… are you excited about the actual treatment plan? Like are we good there?” And they’re… typically they’re gonna say either they’re gonna go, “Yh yeah, yeah, it’s not, no, I love the treatment plan. I think it’s exactly what I need. It’s just that man, it’s just a little bit more money than I thought.”
Right? Or they’re gonna say… you know, or they’ll-they’ll say something like, “Well, yeah, I mean, I think the whole thing makes sense, you know, just to-to be honest, it’s just really kind of freaking me out. It’s just a lot, right? It’s just like the surgery’s just kind of… the whole thing’s just kind of scary, right? It’s just kind of overwhelming.”
You know what I mean? That’s not a money objection. That’s like an anxiety, fear type objection that a lot of times guys, it exists and you never really know about it, right? And if they ever say, “You know, I-I-I understand wh-why they’re recommending this. I just, I had another doctor, you know, this is the third consultation that I’ve had, and, um, I’m just wondering if, you know, if this isn’t maybe overkill. Um, I had another doctor recommend something called a hybrid. Was that a different price point? Um, and I’m just wondering if there… are the results really gonna be that much different.” That’s somebody that’s questioning the actual treatment, so that can’t be closed by overcoming money. You know what I mean? That can’t be clo… that just can’t be closed.
Um, so you have to go all the way back with that particular person, and that’s why as you guys are going through the consultation, make sure you stop and you’re gaining agreement, gaining agreement, gaining agreement and you’re watching their emotion increase and they’re getting more and more and more and more and more excited. Right? Do you guys have questions on that? On the, on the let me think about it. The first step to it?
Stephany: Hey Bart, sorry I jumped on the call super late, but I, um, have recently had a number of patients, I’d say at least 3 or 4, where their objection is, “I have a credit freeze. Um, there’s fraud on my credit report, I can’t run my credit.” And I’m like, oh, the first one I was like, “Oh, okay.” But then after the second, third, fourth, I’m like, “Is this a joke? Like is this the new objection?” I-I don’t… I’m curious if anybody else have had this or how do you even respond to that? I’ve had one even like due same day records put down a down payment payment and now I can’t get them back in the office, because they’re trying to figure out their credit.
Bart: Well, and so you also wanna make sure when you guys close, that you don’t close and lead with financing. You know what I’m saying? You want to close and ask for the money, right? You-you wanna try to get a cheque, try to get ’em to put it on a credit card, like try to get the money first. If they can’t pay all the money.
Isabelle: We actually have somebody have that happen and we brought them in, and they unlocked their credit while they were sitting with our finance girl.
Bart: Okay?
Malone: Yeah. In my experience when patients say that, it’s most likely they have bad credit. They know they have bad credit and in an effort to save face, they’ll make up some excuse like, “Oh, my credit is locked, I can’t unlock it.’ Because what I’ve noticed is that pa-patients with good credit, they wanna flex, so they’ll be happy to fill out the application. They’ll be happy to run it just to show off.
Bart: Oh yeah, they know they’re gonna get approved, and most people that aren’t gonna get approved they kind of know they’re not gonna get approved also. Um, you know, that’s-that’s why in that situation you have to really figure out what you’re working with here, what you… what are you working with in terms of, in terms of cash, okay. Um, so but make sure that you guys are asking for all the money. If they can’t do all the money, say, “Would it help if I could take this, you know, $35,000 if I could break this up over a series of months, you know, give you some type of a monthly payment. Like would that help?” “Yes, that would help.” “Okay, cool, so there’s a lot of different options, right? Let’s figure out something that’s gonna work for you, so would you rather an option where you’re putting more money down and have a lower monthly payment? Or would you rather put less money down and have a higher monthly payment?”
“I’d rather put less money down of a higher monthly payment.” “Okay, cool, so what do you want to put down? It’s 35,000 bucks, so what-what do you want to put down? You want 20%, that would be what? $7,000 somewhere around there, more or less. What do you wanna put down? And then what type of payment do you want?” “Okay, I’ll put down 5,000 bucks and I don’t want a payment no more than 500 bucks a month. “Okay, cool. Good.” Then you go do the financing guys, you don’t run their credit and do the financing until you have all of that done, because I just closed the whole deal. The the deal, I just closed it conceptually so if I get them $5,000 down and $500 a month or less, then I’m just assuming the close and I’m just getting a signature, it’s done. They-they can’t tell me it’s too much or they can’t afford the payment. Make sense?
I find out from them what they want and-and you know what it’s gonna take to get it closed and then I go do it that way I can have my plan B ready, ’cause if you have somebody sitting there that can’t put 5 grand down, you ask ’em, what can you put down? They say, “I can’t put anything down.” Then get their information, run it, and you know that the entire sale hinges on the financing. If it’s declined you’re not gonna… it’s-it’s over. Right? But if you have somebody with the money, then if it’s declined, you know, hey, this person’s got $10,000 in cash, I can still stage this thing out. You-you have a plan B in your head, right? That you can still close them on but you have to know, do they have any cash or not? Do they have any capital? That’s what you need to know. Make sense?
Okay. Now, once you have that, once you have that, um, once you have the objection located, it’s like, okay, is this the treatment? Is it the price or is it the doctor or me? One of the 3. Then you guys can go right in and you can handle, you can handle the objection. Now I want to get back to the question that I got earlier from someone that was saying, hey, they’ve got… basically they’ve got a quote from somebody else and it’s less. Who is that? I’ll get back to it now. She said… I think she said it was like…
Gretell: It’s me.
Bart: Oh, go ahead. What was it? What was it now?
Gretell: That they were saying that they-they can get it for $18,000 with this, you know, reputable doctor. They’re using the yomi. The same thing. Exactly the same thing. Everything. Even more stuff so per arch.
Bart: Okay, and what… how much are you guys charging?
Gretell: Well, I mean our base is like every… pretty much everybody, 25 right, in here. Obviously not taking into consideration up North that you guys can sell it higher. Um, but you… like we tried to put it at 27. That’s like the… uh, like we were trying to aim for 27, 28, you know, per arch but it’s not even… it’s not happening,18 is now the new fashionable number down here, so it’s-it’s really hard to compete with that and it doesn’t, you know…
Bart: What do you sell it for?
Gretell: I mean, I-I have to like, you know, basically almost, you know, whistles and bells, smile a lot. Like do whatever I can to get it going, you know. Uh, if I can, like I try to go to 20 but it… I-I mean, you know, 18 was just really pushing it for, you know, for that, you know, it was like…
Bart: The thing is, you-you don’t really have, you don’t have to get to 18, right? So here’s the… here’s the, here’s the deal with that, somebody’s coming in and they wanna negotiate on price. Listen, there’s a reason why they didn’t move forward with the 18. You just don’t know what it is, right? So the first thing to do in lock into when they’re saying this, say, “Let me ask you, when you, when you went there for the consultation and they showed you 18, you thought, man, that’s a… or maybe you thought that that was a good price. Are you happy with the price? But you still didn’t move forward there-there must have been something, what was it there that was giving you kind of your cause to pause? Was it the doctor? Was it just kind of a feeling that you got? Like what-what was the main reason why you didn’t move forward with that?”
Gretell: No, I mean, the practice was rep… is very reputable. It’s not a bad practice at all. They have great reviews. I looked at them myself, I even called in, their customer service was amazing. Um, it just so happens that this customer came in as a referral from, you know, one of our own clients that does love the doctor a lot, right? So that was a plus on our end, you know, and he was just saying, he’s like, “Look, it’s a little bit further for me, you know, but I can, I can, you know, try to come halfway.” Or something like that and it’s just like it’s a hard hit, you know? Um,
Bart: Yeah, but why didn’t they move forward with the 18?
Gretell: Because like I said, they wanted to see first if we were able to match that because he liked this doctor better. He liked my doctor better because he came re-referred, right? His brother brought him in.
Bart: Right, yeah but he didn’t meet the doctor. He didn’t meet the doctor until the consultation, so listen, what… here’s the thing with price shoppers and people wanna negotiate. They’re like 85% full of crap when they’re talking to you and negotiating with you especially.
Gretell: No, I got him. I-I got him. I signed him, I did sign him. You know, I did get him to-to do it with us. I-I never said I didn’t, you know, but it’s hard.
Bart: No, what I’m saying is somebody that’s positioning… well, yeah, it’s hard, it’s hard. You know, you’re selling big stuff but somebody is positioning, hey, these guys are less than you and I love ’em and everything’s great, and they do the same thing and everything’s perfect and I love ’em, and they’re 8 grand less. That person’s full of crap, right? It’s-it’s a negotiating tactic at the end of the day the reality is they didn’t close there, they didn’t move forward. They got the let me think about it thing and they didn’t move forward for some reason, so there is some part of it that they’re unsure of. Whether it’s not… whether it’s their relationship with the team, their relationship with the doctor, their-their confidence in the doctor, you know, the, um, uh, you know, the-the treatment itself. Whatever it was at the end of the day, the fact is if everything would’ve been as good as they say, they would’ve done it right then, right?
They’re in front of you now for a reason, and what you guys… what I want you to understand is there’s really no difference when you’re looking at spending 18 grand. The difference between 18 and 20, 19 and 21, 19 and 22, it’s so small, right? That if somebody feels more comfortable in an environment, what they’re trying to do is have the best experience and get the best results with the least amount of headaches, and-and trust is a really big factor there, and people will pay an additional 2, 3000, 4,000 bucks for trust. Now, when you get to the point, if you’re $10,000 different, that’s material. You know what I mean?
Gretell: Well, in all fairness…
Bart: That’s not the material difference.
Gretell: In all, in all fairness the other thing I forgot to mention was that they said that, you know, if-if it’s… ’cause I did call the practice and I asked them and I said, you know, what’s-what’s the difference? You know, 18, whatever. You know, for some they-they basically said, you know, same day we will charge you 25, but if it’s the lengthy process then obviously it’s gonna be, you know, 18, so that’s-that’s where that stems from.
If they do the same day it’s 25. If-if it’s, you know, over time then they’ll do it at 18,000.
Bart: Oh, you don’t, so they’re, so they’re just putting ’em in a provisional for 18.
Gretell: Right.
Bart: Then it’s not the same thing. That’s not even close to the same thing.
Gretell: I mean, the-the customer, the customer doesn’t realize that, and it’s like, you know, it’s like…
Bart: Yeah, but that plays right into your hand, right? So the-the-the whole thing is what results are we going towards? Do you want this? How long do you want it to last? How long is longevity important to you? How long is function important to you? Or and-and how important is, uh, is aesthetics to you right now? You’ve said this is what we’re going for, so this is what it takes, what a lot of doctors do, right? And this is just, this is just to get you kind of locked in with them, right? They’ll put you in something to where in a longe… on the longevity scale, it’s not a 10 out 10, it’s a 1 out of 10. For a function, it’s probably a 4 out of 10. It’s a step up from implant supported dentures because it’s fixed, but it’s a 4 or 5 out of 10.
Uh, and from an aesthetic standpoint, it’s nowhere near what we’re gonna be doing in zirconia, so it’s just apples and oranges. This is a treatment plan that’s designed to make a sale, versus a treatment plan that’s designed to achieve the results that you’re looking for. We’re gonna do this all in 1 visit and give you an amazing deal. What what they’re saying is, ‘Hey, I’ll let you… I’ll lock you in at 18, and then when you hate it and it breaks and you have problems, you’ll be forced to upgrade at the higher fee. That’s what they telling clients.
Gretell: No, no, no, no. It’s 18,000 zirconia per arch.
Bart: I think you’re getting confused.
Gretell: No, no. I’ll send you… I’ll go ahead and send you the website.
Bart: How would 18, how would they charge 18 for a longer process and then 25 for the shorter one?
Gretell: I have no clue how they manage that, but that’s what they said.
Bart: What are they getting for 18, zirconia?
Gretell: Yep.
Bart: Then and what do they get for the 25?
Greteel: When I said, “Oh no, but maybe PMMA is that?… no, no, no. Why are you even bothering with that? No, no. That’s what we do for provisionals. No, don’t even bother with that. Shouldn’t even be putting that on. That’s like that they said to me.
Bart: But what did they get for the 25?
Gretell: I’ll forward you the information so that you can see it.
Bart: There’s a 25 and there’s an 18. What’s the difference between the 18 and the 25?
Gretell: They’re just saying it’s like… you know, I-I didn’t understand that. Well, because the… they were basically saying it’s like same day and that’s the 25 over the 18, which is a, you know, a 3 month process. I don’t know, I-I really didn’t get that part, but they-they offer their yomi, they offer everything, the whistles the bells.
Bart: It’s a different material. There-there, there’s…. it’s a… that, that’s a $7,000 difference, right? The only way they’re doing that is with a different material for the teeth. That’s-that’s it. Nothing else makes any sense. I-I’ve pretty much seen it all. Uh, the, you…. there’s no way that you could justify a $7,000 difference in cost, right? Without changing the material of the teeth. There’s just no way, so, um, you know, in that instance, you know, it’s a little bit, it’s a little bit easier but you wanna make sure that you get really clear on exactly what-what they’re talking about when they’re a second opinion.
Gretell: Yeah, no, for sure.
Bart: Because if you guys are in that ballpark, and I know that South Florida market really well, if you’re in there 22, 23, 000 bucks an arch, you’re gonna, you’re gonna, you’re gonna be okay. You just have to sell it the right way. You know what I mean? Like if-if they don’t get a different feeling when they come see you, if you guys don’t create a vision and get the patient excited, right? If you don’t do any of that and create that atmosphere, then the only thing that’s gonna differentiate you from the other practices is price, and then you-you have a problem if you’re not the cheapest, so it can’t be about that. It just can’t. You-you have to make sure that, hey, we do these consultations differently. You know what I mean? We’re gonna go… we’re going to get this DSD app and we’re gonna do a before and after during the consultation.
We’re gonna show ’em what they’re gonna look like. I’m gonna get ’em excited. We’re gonna have a better consultation, a better process, a better experience than anybody else, and they’re not gonna just understand that there’s a difference. They’re gonna feel that there is a difference and that difference is gonna be worth more than 2 or $3,000 to them for this treatment. That has to be your mentality, right? You know how many other marketing companies there are that charge a fraction of what we charge? Tons of them. Tons of them, you know what I mean? But-but it doesn’t matter ’cause what… they-they can’t really compare ’em to us. You know, it’s not really apples to apples there and that’s what you have to make sure that you guys are doing.
Make sure that you don’t allow the patients to put you in a situation where you guys are price focused, it’s results focused, the price, I gotta show them that they’re getting a good deal and they’re gonna get the results that they want, and they’re gonna know, and they’re-they’re gonna understand that, hey, I could go over here and get it for 2 or 3,000 bucks less. I know I could but I’m gonna go with these guys for 2 or $3,000 more ’cause they got their crap together. I like this team. I have full confidence, I like them, I trust them. They’re on top of it and they’re-they’re just head and shoulders above the others. Head and shoulders. It’s like rookie ball professional, right? And I’m willing to pay more to go there. Now, again, $10,000 more. I don’t know.
That’s… you know, that’s-that’s a little much, but yeah, come on, 2, 3,000 bucks on a $25,000 purchase is not material. They’ll do that without you guys having to like match the price, so you just, you don’t want to get worked by the patient in these price situations anyways, and you have to understand they can go out and get the cheapest price from the most piece of crap clinic in the world that says they’ll do this for 13 grand. There’s all sorts of stuff happening out there and that’s why dental failing implants is the biggest market there is in the implant industry right now, ’cause all the cases being screwed up so they can go anywhere and grab that stuff, grab those quotes, doesn’t mean that they’re gonna go there to have it done.
It just… uh, and guess what? There’s a market for those guys. There’s a market for people that are just gonna spin. You know, they’re just gonna always go with the cheapest and that’s fine, so we won’t get those people so who cares? But we’re gonna get everybody on the fence and we’re gonna get everybody that wants to go to the best. Those guys aren’t gonna be able to compete with us there, so this isn’t something where I’m advocating, dropping your prices to always match the lowest quote. You shouldn’t have to do that but you should be able to operate at a higher degree of sophistication in regards to the sales process, your consultation process, you know, creating urgency, creating visualization, instilling confidence and building trust to the point where the patient just has a totally different feeling with you than they do those other guys.
Like I don’t want anybody to be comparing me with some other guy at some other marketing company. I tell the doctors, you sit with me for thirty seconds at the same table as that other guy, you’re gonna know in 5 seconds who you’re gonna be working with. That’s gonna be obvious and that should be your mentality, right? Your mentality is like, you’re not even gonna be comparable to these other wham bam, thank you ma’am clinics that are trying to do it at 15 grand a pop, and that’s the only way they can sell it ’cause they can’t stand on their results, they can’t stand on their experience and-and they-they can’t stand on their experience or their expertise, so the only thing they have is we’re cheap.
You know what I’m saying? Screw them. Screw those cheap bastards. Like you can outsell them doing it the right way. You know what I mean? You don’t have to be compared to ’em. Don’t play the game. Don’t play and don’t let ’em play the game with you. If-if it’s a difference of 1500 bucks, am I gonna lose the sale over 1500? Nope. I’m not losing 30 grand over 15. I’ll come down the 15 and we’ll make it happen here, 2 grand on 30, 35, 40, I’m not losing the sale over 2 grand but 10 grand, go to the cheap one. You know what I mean? It’s too far, you’re too far away, but I’m not gonna lose it over 2 or 3,000 bucks. We’ll negotiate and we’ll get in there and we’ll make that happen. Um, but somebody that says, “Hey, I can go get this done at 14.” Say, “Why do you think they’re doing it at 14? Why?”
Because they can’t get anyone to pay ’em ’cause they don’t have the experience, they don’t get the results and it’s a terrible experience, so the only thing they have to stand on is what?What’s their entire strategy? Do it as cheap as possible. Forget the results. Get ’em in, spend as little time with ’em possible, do as cheap as possible and get ’em out the door. Why would you want to go there? You know what I’m saying guys? Are you guys with me? Is it making sense? So you gotta know when to like, boom. You gotta kind of turn into a-a samurai sometimes with these people, and-and you have to make a point also and you gotta be sure of what you stand for. Like what is the point of you being there? What’s the point of the doctor being there?
The point is to-to create a transformation that’s gonna completely change their life and stand the-the-the test of time. That’s what you’re there to do, right? And that’s what you stand on. That and then the experience they’re gonna have going through it is gonna be, you know, a life-changing one and people that can’t provide the results and the experience, and people that don’t-don’t have the expertise to do the cases, they can’t stand on those things, so the only thing they have left to get people to-to-to allow them to do the case is just charge less, but it’s like it’s the pay me now or pay me later thing. They’re just telling you pay me later. Is that what you wanna do? You know what I’m saying guys? Questions?
Anybody got any questions, concerns, comments about any of that? No? All right cool. I know I went 5. I know, I know I went 5 minutes over. Hopefully you guys took some notes. Try that, try that out right when you get a let me think about it, right? Okay. I know you gotta let… I know you gotta think about it and everything but lemme just ask you a question and then hit ’em with the treatment plan, and see what they say. Usually they’ll say, “No, it’s not the treatment plan, it’s boom.” And then once you, once you hone in on the objection, then go handle the objection directly, but that’s the… your first goal is find the objection without asking them what they need to think about. Find the objection without getting awkward.
Okay? Try it guys. You got anything you need from us, let us know and hopefully I’ll be seeing you all at, uh, in Vegas in June. Okay? All right, see you ladies. Catch you later. All right bye-bye
Jeema: Bye.
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